The Story of "There Will Come Short Rains" by Ray Bradbury
The short story, “There Will Come Short Rains” by Ray Bradbury is an apical story. The story as written by Ray describes the fear of what is to come as Ray puts it in his flash-forward of how the world will be in 2026. Ray’s idea however, is not to instill fear into people but rather to give a warning before things worsen. Prevention is better than cure as well known is Ray’s thesis in his humorous short story. He portrays the future as “technological” using his figurative speech, where the human nature of man has been overpowered by technology thus making people give in to technology instead of humanity.
Ray's Portrayal of 2026
Ray describes the year 2026 in a “modern house” or “smart house” in Allendale, California. The twist and turns of the story make it seem long as it captures one’s attention while Ray uses only twenty-four hours to describe a whole future. The short anachronism story, requiring one to read in between the lines is full of diction, symbolism, allegory, foreshadowing, imagery and lots of other figurative literary devices. However, when keen analysis is made into the technological advancements currently operating and still being innovated, Ray Bradbury’s story ceases from being a story and turns into the warning that he was putting across.
The Importance of Anachronism
To start with, Ray uses anachronism for the clear message he is passing across to be delivered and understood clearly. The anachronism, forms the backbone of the story with it at the beginning of the third paragraph; "Today is August 4, 2026," said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling, "in the city of Allendale, California." As well as the ending of the story; "Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is...". Ray uses this literary device perfectly as the story written in 1950, portrays a clear picture of the year 2026, enabling the image of the story to be created in the reader’s minds hereby, understanding the context of the story. Therefore, it is important to understand the anachronism in the story for one to understand the story itself.
Diction Portraying Different Ideas
Ray uses diction in his story to portray different ideas using similar words so as to make the story catching and appealing to the reader and to support critical thinking. Examples include the title of the story in itself “There Will Come Short Rains”. The true meaning of the phrase and the projected meaning that Ray tries to project are totally different but through understanding the projected meaning, it helps one understand the story more. Another illustration of Ray’s use of diction is when he says “The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness”. The phrase the emptiness here has a different meaning from its true meaning but used by Ray it brings out the meaning that no one was answering.
The Use of Symbolism
Ray adds on symbolism to his story which clearly illustrates, portraying the symbolized object. Examples include; the animals which have been used to symbolize different things differently, for example the dog symbolizing technological advancements; the phrase glow, rubble and ash has also been used to symbolize the atmosphere and the poem being used to symbolize how people are warned but to no avail. It is therefore important to note the symbolized objects and their symbols so as to get to understand Ray’s message clearly.
The Foreshadow of the Future
“There Will Come Short Rains”, as the story generally, is a foreshadow of what Ray sees happening in the near future. Ray uses the current state and simulates it into a foreshadow of the future to come which will be a disaster and thus is giving out the warning so as to prevent the foreshadow from happening as simulated before.
An Allegory Reflecting Real-Life Foreshadow
The story by Ray is also an allegory as it is a story being used to represent the general message of real-life foreshadow of what is to come. It is therefore important to note this so as to understand that the story is just but an allegory, representing what is to come, which Ray is trying to avoid. Understanding the allegory, therefore, aids in understanding Ray’s thesis for the story.
The Use of Imagery
Ray uses imagery in his story as he describes the state of the wall of the charred house. He says that only a few parts are left and goes ahead to describe how the images resemble; The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down. The five spots of paint - the man, the woman, the children, the ball - remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer. In understanding the imagery as portrayed by Ray, one gets to understand the state of the west side thus understanding Ray’s message (Purves, 2014).
Ray Bradbury's Warning for the Future
Ray in 1950, when writing the story “There Will Come Short Rains”, was trying to give a warning of what is to be expected in the year 2026 as humanity would be overpowered by technology. Years before the due day of the foreshadow arrives, Ray’s warnings are clearly visible to be in place. The current innovations and inventions brought by technology are a clear match of Ray’s foreshadow. Examples include; “the cleaning mice and rats” are the current iRobot that sweep and mop floors and carpets; “the voice of the house” are the current Alexa, Google Talk, and Cortana; while “the brain of the house” are the smart homes which are run by a central computer. It is therefore evident that Ray was not just telling stories but was presenting a reality that was to come and is here already but more to come with computers doing more of the manual work and slowly serving and being regarded to as “fellow humans”.
Work(s) Cited
Purves, Alan C., and Richard Beach. “Literature and the reader: Research in response to literature, reading interests, and the teaching of literature.” 2014.
